"consider my humanity if i don't need love... question my sanity if i don't need Your love"

thought one:
what, ontologically, beyond "because God said so," makes lying wrong? if that reason could be compromised BY TELLING THE TRUTH, would that justify lying?

thought two:

~MY GREATEST NEED IS YOU~
Your hope in my heart is the rarest treasure

Your Name on my tongue is the sweetest word

My choicest hours Are the hours I spend with You --

O Allah, I can't live in this world

Without remembering You--

How can I endure the next world

Without seeing Your face?

I am a stranger in Your country

And lonely among Your worshippers:

This is the substance of my complaint.

-Rabia al Basri-

"Not much is known about Rabia al Basri, except that she lived in Basra in Iraq, in the second half of the 8th century AD. She was born into poverty [and later became a slave].

Her master worked her very hard, but at night after finishing her chores Rabia would turn to meditation and prayers and praising the Lord. Foregoing rest and sleep she spent her nights in prayers and she often fasted during the day.

One day the master of the house spied her at her devotions. There was a divine light enveloping her as she prayed. Shocked that he kept such a pious soul as a slave, he set her free. Rabia went into the desert to pray and became an ascetic. Unlike many sufi saints she did not learn from a teacher or master but turned to God himself.

Throughout her life, her Love of God. Poverty and self-denial were unwavering and her constant companions. She did not possess much other than a broken jug, a rush mat and a brick, which she used as a pillow. She spent all night in prayer and contemplation chiding herself if she slept for it took her away from her active Love of God.

More interesting than her absolute asceticism, however, is the actual concept of Divine Love that Rabia introduced. She was the first to introduce the idea that God should be loved for God's own sake, not out of fear--as earlier Sufis had done.

She taught that repentance was a gift from God because no one could repent unless God had already accepted him and given him this gift of repentance. She taught that sinners must fear the punishment they deserved for their sins, but she also offered such sinners far more hope of Paradise than most other ascetics did. For herself, she held to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's servants; emotions like fear and hope were like veils -- i.e. hindrances to the vision of God Himself.

Rabia was in her early to mid eighties when she died, having followed the mystic Way to the end. By then, she was continually united with her Beloved. As she told her Sufi friends, "My Beloved is always with me"

* * * *

if someone loves the Ultimate Reality enough to submit their entire self to Him and lives a life of devotion as pure as humanity is capable of, IS IT IN VAIN?

conversely, if one loves the Ultimate Reality not much at all but REALLY REALLY means it when they pray the Sinner's Prayer and is willing to be participate in life as a Christian for all their days, IS IT EFFICACIOUS?

ay, Jesus... why can't those who would love You be given the opportunity, and those who should love You use the opportunity we have... misericordia.

thought three:
"O Allah! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your Own sake, grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.”

should we be willing to serve God regardless of eternity? and on another issue, is eternity so unreal to me that it makes the above expression a moot point?

thought four:

from dust you are to dust you will return... so you know what God has done FOR your soul... ahora, what are you doing with yo' soul, my friend?